MARIA-03
Mitt Romney to Talk to Trump This Weekend About Cabinet Position; Ford
Keeping Some Production in U.S.; Apple Considering Making iPhones In
America; Flynn Reportedly Reported Chosen for National Security Advisor;
Kansas Congressman Mike Pompeo Is CIA Director, Fox can confirm key roles
have been offered to several top names for president-elect Donald Trump's
administration; The big business in whiskey, we are talking to one of the
top name in the $3 billion a year industry - Part 1>
Wolf, Bill Daley, Gary Kaminsky, Joseph Magliocco>
[08:00:00] MARIA BARTIROMO, FBN ANCHOR: Good Friday morning, welcome back, thanks so much being with us. Happy Friday, November 18, your top stories 8:00 a.m. on the east coast, we have breaking news right now, Fox News has confirmed that Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions has been offered the role of attorney general in the Trump administration, Trump advisors weighing in on other names being floating for key positions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARL ICAHN, BILLIONAIRE INVESTOR: I think, Steve Mnuchin should do it, I urged Donald to consider -- for -- I talked to Donald on and off in the last few weeks.
KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP ADVISOR: Mitt Romney is a job creator he is an American success story. He knows a lot about the world many things that Romney talked about in his 2012 election with respect to the world stage have come true.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: Jeff Sessions offered attorney general. The Trump presidency could have some big business returning home the latest reports say Ford keeping some production in the U.S. Apple is considering making iPhones in America. Corporate America getting in line with the Trump administration.
The first winter storm of the season causing a huge pileup in Colorado. What you need to know millions preparing to travel for the holidays next week. Markets this morning like this, we have been seeing a record-setting week, that continues, this morning, the market looking lower since a turnaround even though dollar continues strongly. Dow industrials expected up fractionally. Europe stocks mixed European indices bounced from earlier lowest DAX in Germany up 22 points. Right now, Asia overnight trading mixed best performance japan NIKKEI average up better than one and a half percent. Coca-Cola to bottle a selfie all those this morning. Joining me to talk all about it, Rosecliff CEO and founder Mike Murphy here, Maverick PAC national co-chair Morgan Ortagus is here, co-host of "Wall Street Week" Gary Kaminsky here, great show, good morning.
Good to see you, breaking news right now we have Jeff Sessions being offered the attorney general role in a Trump administration, Morgan your take on this.
MORGAN ORTAGUS, CO-CHAIR, MAVERICK PAC: I think really smart, a good pick, he was loyal to President-elect Trump since the very beginning, so the question for me who gets the -- everybody talking about attorney general, Flynn is reported chosen for national security advisor another smart choice. The secretary of state position, cream of the crop, I think similar to secretary of state I expect Trump to pick somebody out of the box.
BARTIROMO: We are going to talk about this with the President Obama's former chief of staff Bill Daley is with us and Stuart Varney weighing in, momentarily. I want to bring Art Laffer right now he served as economic advisor under President Reagan, thanks for joining us.
ART LAFFER, ECONOMIC ADVISOR UNDER PRESIDENT REAGAN: Thank you.
BARTIROMO: Your thoughts on this Jeff Sessions being offered attorney general.
LAFFER: I think Jeff Sessions is great will make a great attorney general and a very stable solid guy, and I couldn't be happier.
BARTIROMO: He has got that team in place, that stayed by him, throughout the entire campaign. And we know that Jeff Sessions is one of those loyalists but Jeff Sessions did so much on immigration, Art, he really has been the architect of a lot of immigration plans, for reform, in the U.S. him and Steven Miller will he not be able to use that strength in different role?
LAFFER: I know Jeff Sessions fairly well, and I think he is a very solid well-grounded guy and I am not worried about him in immigration issues, at all to be honest with you Maria.
BARTIROMO: He is good at it that is what I am saying he is good at it.
LAFFER: He knows a lot about immigration the attorney general has a lot to do with immigration as well, as you know. It has been happening here, so I think it will be a perfect match of his skills with this job, I -- I he really is very knowledgeable, all the way deep down into the issues.
BARTIROMO: You know, the Trump effect President-elect Trump took to twitter to talk about his role in Ford keeping production of Lincoln SUV plant in Kentucky. I want to get your take on this. Is corporate America all of a sudden getting in line with Trump economics? Just got a call from my friend Bill Ford he writes chairman of Ford, who advised me he will be keeping the Lincoln plant in Kentucky, not Mexico. I worked hard with Bill he writes to keep the Lincoln plant in Kentucky, I owed it to great state of Kentucky for confidence in me, now Ford said the plant has never scheduled to close. Art, this comes as a report says Apple is also considering producing iPhones in the U.S.
LAFFER: Just wonderful, but, again, I don't think any decisions were made because of bullying or anything else, when Ford and when Apple look at the future, and see a 15 percent corporate tax, when they see the prosperity to U.S. look at Kentucky a wonderful state, that has been just destroyed by bad economic policies. It is just -- I mean tragedy in the making. Kentucky, I just hope that will turn Kentucky around as well. And bring it back into the family of states with prosperity and thank goodness for Ford, thank goodness for Apple, I think it is low corporate tax that attracts companies into doing this I don't think it is any fear of having tariffs on products I think it is really a pro-growth positive response that I love.
MIKE MURPHY, CEO, ROSECLIFF CAPITAL: Art, Mike Murphy, I couldn't agree more with your comments, we are a week and a half into this new regime and already we are seeing this, you know, so I believe.
LAFFER: Isn't it great.
BARTIROMO: Great, great.
MURPHY: Absolutely, great, symbolically whether or not Apple does bring iPhone manufacturing back to U.S. or not, is not the real point, I think the symbolic nature what is going on that people want to come in get in line behind President-elect Trump a huge positive for the economy.
LAFFER: I agree with you totally, and I think these people also see the future fairly clearly, that with Trump coming in with all the appointments they see are very stable solid good people that he is appointing, and you know, I am getting all sorts of calls from Democrats, and from other people who are of a liberal persuasion panicked, terrified coming way. They are calming way down I think it is going to be even good when we start working with Democrats into the future to make all of this work, it is all of us together.
GARY KAMINSKY, CO-HOST, "WALL STREET WEEK": Art I don't want to be -- here today but I do want to address one thing. As the stock market has rallied, obviously, we have seen major move up in bond market in terms of bond yields and prices down. At what point given that you are one of the architects of the economic plan that is going to hopefully be executed here, at what point do higher interest rates start to impact otherwise potential benefits of economic growth?
LAFFER: Mike, let me just answer if I can, with taking a look at what an interest rate really is. An interest rate is the expected nominal return on that asset over the maturity of that instrument. For example, let me take a TIP shield, a 10-year TIP shield, is the expected real return, on a unit of capital over the next 10 years. You cannot have a boom in America without the TIP shield between being 2 1/2 and 4 1/2 percent. rates have to go up maybe 4 1/2 to 6 1/2 percent, 10-year bond yields before you hit equilibrium with a real bull market growth economy.
Look at the Clinton years, look at the Reagan years. These interest rates, real interest rates were very high because of the prosperity. They didn't kill it.
KAMINSKY: So, it is Gary Kaminsky, the fact rates may go up and may have an impact in terms of like slowing down housing as an example, you think the rest of the economy will get a benefit from the other economic growth, so that it will -- that is where you get that equilibrium?
LAFFER: They won't slow down the housing market and the housing market is slow because interest rates are low. Who wants to lend on 30-year risky mortgage for 30 years, 3 and a quarter percent? All the capital, we have had the worst housing market for last 8 years because interest rates were held artificially low not in spite of it. Once rates get up you will see the flow of capital into the mortgage market, the flow of capital into investments and you will see the -- you know, demand and supply are important.
Low interest rates everyone wants to borrow but there is no money for them to borrow. So, you want the interest rates just right, where they match the supply and demand and you will get a boom in the housing market like you haven't seen in generations, believe me.
BARTIROMO: When he starts rolling back regulations that will certainly loosen up the market as well.
LAFFER: Yes. All works together.
BARTIROMO: Here is Morgan Ortagus.
ORTAGUS: One final thing. everyone talking about new Trump administration picks but the one job that I think is going to be trickiest to fill U.S. trade ambassador, who do you think Mr. Trump may pick for that and what do you think a new trade ambassador is going to have to do?
LAFFER: I don't know who new person he is going to pick is, what I am really looking to is what is going to happen to my dear friends Larry Kudlow and Steve Moore, if they get good jobs we've got a great country for centuries. I hope Larry Kudlow gets the NEC job. I am looking forward to it, he is the most qualified in the world.
He has been loyal to Trump all the way. Steve Moore is spectacular beyond spectacular. I am so happy sitting here as an old man watching Washington seeing future unfold. It is really exciting.
BARTIROMO: Really exciting because Steve Moore came with us last week said he thinks growth could triple from where it is right now 1 1/2, 2 percent? What --
LAFFER: He has been very modest on that we had growth rates in '83 and '84 on an annual base of quarters at 6, 7, 8, 9 percent like Chinese growth rates. They had the same thing under Kennedy, there is no limit to how well this really badly damaged economy can perform if the right policies are put into place.
BARTIROMO: How worried should we be that the deficit goes higher before it comes back done?
LAFFER: There is no way it can't go higher before it starts coming down, you've got to refurbish the capital stock, cut tax rates to increase growth and output, you have got to re-polish the imprimatur. And all of that means that we have to run deficits for a while, just the way we did under Reagan, once that happens, you cannot solve the debt problem in America without economic growth.
BARTIROMO: All right.
LAFFER: You plain can't, so we need the growth and this is what it takes to get it.
BARTIROMO: That is why Donald Trump was elected his priority was economic growth from the get-go let's face it.
LAFFER: He is a great businessperson, on that, and this is a business problem in America, it is not a they are theoretical problem about an inverted matrix -- this is a business problem how do you turn around a company run down years and years.
BARTIROMO: On a company level, good to see you --
LAFFER: Thank you, everybody.
BARTIROMO: Thank you so much.
KAMINSKY: I have to say have you ever heard somebody explain the housing - - how the housing market will benefit from higher rates that was a first. That was a first. God bless him I hope he is right good argument.
MURPHY: If you look since election, the 30-year mortgage yield has gone from 3.25 to over 4 percent maybe he is right.
BARTIROMO: Recap, Michael Flynn, national security advisor that is job he was offered, Jeff Sessions, attorney general, Reince Priebus we know chief- of-staff, Steve Bannon chief of strategy, Representative Mike Pompeo offered CIA director. Team coming together. A short break, next 30,000 Volkswagen jobs on chopping block as the automaker tries to steer back toward about profitability in the wake of the emissions scandal. Our first look at the automakers sweeping restructuring plan next. Show the world you bought a Coke, the soda maker unveiled the first likely only selfie bottle. Back in a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Breaking news moments ago, Fox News can confirm key roles offered Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, attorney general, to Kansas Congressman Mike Pompeo CIA director, Mike Flynn national security advisor.
Jeff Session's' role and Mike Pompeo's role need confirmation by the Senate. Michael
Flynn does not need the Senate confirmation. We know Reince Priebus is chief-of-staff, Steve Bannon is chief of strategy. So, the team coming together we are talking about it this morning.
The first major winter storm of the season pounded parts of the nation's midsection already. Lauren Simonetti with details now, good morning.
LAUREN SIMONETTI, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: That system is now moving into the upper Midwest, forecasters posting blizzard warnings in South Dakota, North Dakota and Western Minnesota as you watch the weather move over the map. This after the storm dumped up to a foot of snow, in parts of Wyoming, Montana and Colorado, just southeast of Denver the conditions causing a 20-car pileup, look at that! Along i70, no serious injuries reported, the storm shut down several sections of interstate and led to delays at Denver International Airport.
Major job cuts coming to Volkswagen, as many as 30,000 jobs slashed in next five years most of them, in Germany. VW plans to boost profitability after spending billions In fines and restitution in the emissions cheating scandal.
The company also wants to increase productivity of its German factories by 25 percent and speed up shift to electric cars and self-driving cars. Apple finally acknowledging what people are calling touch disease iPhone plus owners might have experienced this complaining about screen malfunctioning. Apple says no problem with design it is caused by dropping your phone over and over again, still Apple says it will fix this. You have to pay 149 dollars to do so that is less than half the cost of the repairs that are made out of warranty. We don't know yet how this will affect a lawsuit that some iPhone owners have filed.
And taking a selfie, Coca-Cola making this, come up with everything now, a selfie bottle you can see right there a red thing, a camera in the base of the bottle takes a picture if you tilt it 70 degrees to take a drink.
And then thanks to everyone snickering the UBS port in the base of the bottle you can transfer drinking selfie to computer, of course, you can share them on social media because you have so much time on hands. So, it was an Israeli advertising agency that came up with this, we don't know if this is going to show up in stores in Israel or maybe in the U.S., that is a way to get millennials to drink soda, no?
BARTIROMO: I guess, how much is it?
SIMONETTI: I don't know.
ORTAGUS: Would I do it? I am a millennial.
BARTIROMO: Nat, had a really good idea, our floor director, he says why don't we put a selfie camera on "Mornings with Maria" cup. always taking selfies around here?
All right, that is funny, thank you, Lauren, coming up another peek inside the cabinet taking a look and talking about names in the spotlight as Donald Trump transition into the White House. And next will the Trump administration block the AT&T Time Warner merger?
We know what Trump said about this deal, what they would each mean for the industry. Back in a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back, M&A activity leading up to and throughout the Presidential election. one proposed merger was AT&T Time Warner deal. Donald Trump on campaign trail vowed to block the deal said that is too big and too dominant. Joining us right now is the CEO and cofounder of Activate one of the foremost experts on technology and telecom today, Michael Wolf is here. Good to see you.
MICHAEL WOLF, CEO, ACTIVATE: Great to be here.
BARTIROMO: What about that. Donald Trump says he is going to kill this deal, what do you see?
WOLF: There are a lot of reasons why this deal should go through, first of all, the 35-dollar cable package with 100 channels, that they said they are going to launch, by the way, including, internet access on your phone. That is a populist package that makes a lot of sense for a lot of consumers blocking this deal doesn't make sense. You say people should continue to pay very high amounts for cable TV.
BARTIROMO: Mike, we know that the industry is changing incredibly and getting in the way of free markets, I am not so sure about that.
MURPHY: Absolutely, I think if you look back that came up during the election, you know while he was campaigning, I think now I believe President-elect Trump is going to make the best business decision possible and I agree completely with Michael this should not be blocked. This is a positive for consumers because the way we consume content has changed rapidly and is not going backward. So, this deal makes sense I can't see him blocking it.
WOLF: Also, it makes sense from an infrastructure perspective if they are going to offer this package, 5g that means AT&T has to build massive infrastructure meaning new towers and new jobs.
BARTIROMO: Let me ask you because, the way that people are consuming media, you have been working on -- you have a big report that you have just done, you are tracking does trends in technology and media industry. You put together a detailed review of the landscape for 2017, talk to us about how you see media telecom changing, in the next year, or about three years.
WOLF: Right, first of all, we don't see huge amounts of cord cutting there is a lot of people will continue to get a huge amount of value out of cable TV including watching this show. Second of all, the services that people are getting like, Netflix in the next couple years they are going to have more than one of those services. The average American will probably have about two of them, Netflix and something else, Hulu and Netflix, amazon prime and Netflix.
BARTIROMO: They will pay for everything.
WOLF: The third thing is that we are likely to see people getting more television over the internet, but going to come from the same people, going to come from DIRECTV which is going to offer this DIRECTV Now package, it is going to come from Charter and all of the other major capable operators. It is not going to come from people like Sony who going to be dead in the water with their services.
ORTAGUS: So, are you worried millennials are not buying television, most college students don't buy TV.
WOLF: It is interesting, our research shows that pretty much a large percentage of them are sharing passwords with their parents.
BARTIROMO: We heard that, too.
WOLF: And they -- most of them if they didn't get the password for free, 80 percent would pay for it themselves. Michael.
MURPHY: I have to ask about NFL, what happened? A major story about ratings decline will we know whether or not the election had major impact. What are your thoughts?
WOLF: I believe the election has had a major impact, I also think that some of this comes down to there is a lot of football on television right now.
MURPHY: Too much product.
WOLF: Television on across the board, on too many networks, the third thing is you have almost got to look these weren't best games. And television is not going to go -- television is America's favorite habit and it is not going away. Americans continue to watch on average 30 hours a week of television. A lot of cases losing sleep, football is the thing they want to watch.
BARTIROMO: Do you think like an Amazon is going to be there to bid for "Sunday Night Football", "Monday Night Football" when the deal is expiring, 2018 I think?
WOLF: End of `18 beginning '19, those are years to watch what is going to happen with sports rights, because a lot of them come up for renewal. Yes, I believe that there is -- we are going to see some bids because those networks and those over the top services have a lot of money. They got to have a lot more subscribers and they are going to need sports in order to continue to get subscriptions.
BARTIROMO: Before we go I love this prediction that you have, by 2020 gaming time will more than double, fueled by e-sports, messaging will grow faster than social media.
WOLF: This next year we are going to see the great messaging wars between all the major technology companies, every one of the technology companies this year has either launched a messaging chat box, has launched a new messaging service or both. And there is a huge amount of money and this what we are going to see next year and it is going to be a lot of people's time.
BARTIROMO: It is true, what do you do on your phone? You are messaging.
ORTAGUS: People worried about cyber security in messaging apps as well.
WOLF: They are but if you look at messaging apps, for example WhatsApp and Facebook messenger and Telegram, and also Snapchat, messages don't stay there. And let's be clear a lot this is about personal communication, it is not about business communication but those apps are much smaller. Those are going to be things like Microsoft Teams and Slack.
BARTIROMO: We used to look at Mary Meeker and her trends report now we are looking at Activate and Michael Wolf `s Trends Report. Thank you, Michael.
WOLF: Thank you. Michael wolf there. Ahead Donald Trump's cabinet starting to come together, the new names being floated this morning for the administration, plus shareholders approved the Tesla Solar City merger, we will see if deal is giving a jolt to Tesla in the premarket, back in a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MARIA BARTIROMO, MORNINGS WITH MARIA HOST: Good Friday morning, everybody. Welcome Back. I'm Maria Bartiromo. Thanks so much for joining us today. It is Friday, November 18. Your top stories 8:30 AM on the East Coast, breaking news this morning, Fox can confirm key roles have been offered to several top names for president-elect Donald Trump's administration, Alabama senator, Jeff Sessions, have been offered the role of attorney general. Kansas congressman, Mike Pompeo, have been offered the role of CIA director, and retired general, Mike Flynn, as national security advisor. President Obama weighed in on the importance of cabinet's pick for president-elect Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: What may work in generating enthusiasm or passion during elections maybe different than what will work in terms of unifying the country, and gaining the trust even of those who didn't support him. And he indicated his willingness to -- his -- understanding of that, but you are absolutely right that that has to reflect itself not only in things he says, but also how he fills out his administration.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: We are following all the updates as President-elect Donald Trump shapes his cabinet. Elon Musk gets his wish, Tesla shareholders are putting their faith in the billionaire entrepreneur when it comes to the SolarCity deal. Market this morning -- well, they were lower earlier, but they since turn, and as you could see it's a flat showing right now. The Dow Industrial expected to open down just 3 points, S&P 500 down a fraction, and the NASDAQ is expected to open up, this after record-setting week, you know. In Europe, stocks are mixed as well. Here's the numbers right now in real time, the FT 100 up 4 points, it had been down by 25 earlier. In Asia, overnight, trading was mixed. Japan, was the best performer, the Nikkei Average up almost two-thirds of one percent.
The big business in whiskey, we are talking to one of the top name in the $3 billion a year industry, coming up. But, first though, breaking this morning, we are expecting announcement regarding top positions on President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet. Senator Jeff Sessions has been offered the role of attorney general. Congressman Mike Pompeo has been tapped for CIA director, and General Michael Flynn for White House national security advisor. Joining me right now is the former chief-of-staff under President Obama and former commerce secretary under President Clinton, Bill Daley. Bill, good to see you.
BILL DALEY, FORMER CHIEF-OF STAFF UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thanks, Maria.
BARTIROMO: Well, this is nothing new for you, you've seen all of this before, in the past administrations that you have worked for. Give us some color, what's going on behind the scenes?
DALEY: Well, there is a lot of seemingly confusion going on, that's normal. You've got to fill thousands of jobs and hundreds of jobs that are really important, and they must be filled by January 20th in a short period. So, you've got -- a selection so far, surprising I think to anyone. Jeff Sessions and Pompeo, I don't know to be frank here. Flynn, General Flynn, everyone kind of expected him to end up in a major role in national security, so none of those yet. I think the president-elect is reaching out. It looks like he is to Romney and to others, which is a good sign. But until that entire cabinet is kind of formed, and announced, and then confirmed, you really don't have a good sense of what it looks like, whether or not it reflects his base, or reflects a broader sort of constituency in America.
BARTIROMO: How important is it for him to be reaching out to the other side, in terms of bringing -- sort of disagreements in term of policy on what the agenda should be?
DALEY: Well, I think there's no doubt its extremely important for two reasons. One, you have to remember he did not win the popular vote, so more voted against him, they voted for him. Yes, he is the president-elect and we accept that. I chaired Al Gore's campaign in 2000, he got half a million more votes than George Bush. George Bush was president for 8 years. Everyone accepts the fact that that vote -- elections have results. The result is, he's got to put together a cabinet, first of all, that he feels comfortable with. And can then work with congress, work with constituencies, not only in the United States but around the world in a comfortable way. The struggle for him is his sort of base, he ran as much against Republican Party as he ran against the Democratic Party.
BARTIROMO: Yeah.
DALEY: . in the nominee. So how do you put that together? And how do you have -- how do you feed your voters, who may have voted for you for a different reason than they voted for the Republicans in congress especially. So it's not an easy task for him to do.
BARTIROMO: Well, you would think that having Reince Priebus, the head of the RNC would be a positive in terms of outreach to those Republicans.
DALEY: No doubt about it. I think that was with a very strong selection, I think Bannon was a controversial, obviously, he seems to represent the more anti-Republican establishment on the fringe, and how he melds those two will be interesting. But Priebus, I think, as chief-of-staff, if he's the one -- when they announced them they said they're co-equal. Who actually is supposed to run the place as the chief of the staff, is an important issue to see. I think that will develop over time.